50 Cent Curtis Rating: 3/5 For fans of: Lloyd Banks, everyone on the G-Unit label, Timbaland Tracks to download: “Fire,” “Amusement Park,” “I Get Money”

Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson personifies the American Dream. A narcotics dealer at age 12, son to a murdered mother and victim of multiple gunshot wounds that would forever distort his maxillofacial region, 50 has emerged as one of the most prominent, influential rap artists today.

His latest album, “Curtis,” further explores his rise to the top and, fear not, expounds upon his great affinity for guns, hos and money.

Featuring such pop phenomena as Timbaland, Justin Timberlake and Eminem, “Curtis” boasts a nasty artillery of what could more or less be described as talent. No matter what genre of music interests you, there is no arguing that 50 and friends understand pop sensibility and create music that appeals to the teen/twenty-something audience. It is from these loins that “Curtis,” or, essentially, “The Massacre 2″ is born.

Really not much differs between this new joint and 50’s smash 2005 album “The Massacre” except that this one consists of deeper intensity, less fun and better name-brand recognition. Granted, 50 Cent does explore some new themes. The Timbaland track “Ayo Technology,” featuring Timberlake, seems to uncover the hardships of either cyber/phone sex or webcams. The Dr. Dre produced “Fire,” which is ridiculously awesome, provides a fresh take on the typical club anthem. With its dance beats and surprisingly valuable contributions from the lead Pussycat Doll, it is easily the most sexily fun, refreshing song 50 Cent has ever produced.

When I first heard word of 50’s new album, however, I did not care about hearing songs deep and original in music or meaning. Really, I just wanted something along the lines of “Magic Stick” and “Candy Shop,” the phallic beauties that, despite being the exact same song musically, are each so uniquely deep in their exploration of man’s sexual desires that they deserve eternal recognition.

Luckily, 50 outdoes each of these songs ten times over with “Amusement Park,” in which he likens his sexual prowess to a rollercoaster-presumably a wooden one (wink)-and a magic show. In reference to the latter, he spits, “Now watch me pull a rabbit out a hat / Then you can use the rabbit all over your cat.” Poetry.

While the fun, dance club, sex-driven songs bring this album to some pretty intense climaxes, it consists otherwise of the same old beats and the same old themes. Songs about ego, the struggle and assault weapons clutter the rest of the album, but none of them bring anything new to the proverbial table.

Though this shouldn’t matter, because “Amusement Park” is so great; however, the album has very real potential to disappoint the listener looking for a complete, cohesive musical experience. I suppose I could give you reasons why and how a majority of the album is typical and decent at best, but quite honestly the rest of the songs are so unremarkable I can’t remember anything about them. Regardless, “Fiddy” drops some phat beats, spits some phat fire and reestablishes himself as a presence on the pop-rap scene. All faults and inconsistencies aside, mad props go out to Mr. Jackson because anyone who can escape such a hellish life through the maniacal music industry deserves at least a little bit of credit. Now that’s real talk.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 12th, 2007 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Cadenza. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.